Board minutes - February 25, 2018

Source: https://meta.mytake.org/t/board-minutes-february-25-2018/44

2018-02-25T15:03:39Z — by todd-riley

9:00am EST
Attendees:
Victoria
Dave
Ned
Todd

Launch

At this point, there is a lack of steam. Todd reached out to several politically engaged/active people and the response was lukewarm. Victoria reached out to politically engaged/active people and the response was similar. After reaching out several times to each person, the people seemed too busy and couldn’t see the incentive or the value in MyTake.org.

Possible Problems

• The pitch.
• The home/landing page (from a marketing perspective).
• We’ve built something that people don’t want.

Suggestions

• An active launch where we are hands-on with people using it, guiding them and getting feedback.
• Reddit style:
  • The founders were doing all of the commenting for weeks to months, generating fake hubbub before real accounts joined.
• Lose the account creation process.
• Emphasize permalinks.
  • As you engage with the site, the URL changes. This is a shareable URL and doesn’t require an account to create, share, or read. It is granular, down to document highlights and video clips.
• Branding:
  • Header text saying what MyTake.org is.
  • Fix confusion around the navigation.
• Gamify it:
  • Users get “points” for taking certain actions, like sharing snippets or writing/sharing takes.

Target Audience

• Consider the education market. Kids studying political science for example. Reach out to school teachers to find a government or civics teacher.
• Reach out to Erik again.

2018 Budgeting

Ned’s contributed $4,500 so far and has committed to $5,500 more this year for a total of $10,000. Todd averages 15-20 hours of development time per week. 20 hours per week at $30/hour is $2,400 per month, so the funds will last until May at this point.

y-combinator is still something we want to attempt. It would help with funding and finding a full time server developer. We would have a much better shot at getting accepted if we have a user base.

2018 Compliance

• Ned filled out 2017 tax form 990-PF. It is much more complicated than personal or standard business taxes, but it is done. Victoria and Dave will also look it over.
• Ned discovered a California tax form that he missed in 2017. We are eligible for a fine of up to $1000 because of this. Ned will call a hotline on Monday regarding this to explain how it was an honest mistake and that we’re rectifying it.
• The sample tax forms we’ve been following also missed this form. They were 3 years late, we are only 3 months late.

Reply 1

by nedtwigg — 2018-02-26T22:02:04Z

• Steve Huffman on seeding Reddit’s content for the first few months. I don’t think we should do fake users, but good for setting expectations.

Reply 2

by nedtwigg — 2018-02-27T05:25:11Z

Followed-up with CA about CT-1 - no fine will be issued

Also, I got a virtual phone number for MyTake.org so I don’t have to put my cell # on our public filings. It’s 1-844-693-3350.